Lizzo lost weight due to depression after facing public scandal and isolation.
Lizzo sees weight loss as 'releasing' rather than 'losing' and wants to regain trust of body positivity movement.
Lizzo remains a proud 'big girl' and calls for nuance in discussions around body image and representation.
Lizzo is opening up about the reasoning behind her weight loss journey, insisting she still loves being a “big girl” amid the “Ozempic boom.”
Source: Stefanie Keenan / Getty
In a new essay published on Substack on Nov. 23, the “Truth Hurts” singer opened up about her mental health throughout her weight loss journey. In the candid piece, Lizzo–real name Melissa Jefferson–admits just how difficult it was to navigate after feeling like her fans had turned on her.
“I started losing weight in the fall of 2023,” she began in her essay. “I was severely depressed. I had been the subject of vicious scandal, and it felt like the whole world turned its back on me. I became deeply suicidal. I cut off all my loved ones.”
Jefferson went on to explain that she “couldn’t trust anyone” after the “scandal,” referring to the lawsuit filed by three of her former backup dancers. She also noted that her “former close colleagues and friends” started to come out and make “things up” about her.
“God knows why. I supposed to kick me while I’m down? Fifteen minutes of fame? I guess I’ll never know,” she wrote. “That resulted in my extreme isolation. I was angry every single day. Mostly because I couldn’t go out and defend myself. I couldn’t tell the world the truth because no one would believe me.”
The star went on to explain that she “needed a way to process [her] pain through [her] body,” which is when she began doing pilates.
“I found that I had lost some weight in that process, but it wasn’t as significant as it is now,” Lizzo wrote. “Because it wasn’t intentional. I’d decided that winter to sit and record a video saying I wanted to intentionally lose weight. Why? I guess I felt like I had lost everything, and I wanted to change. After talking to a few therapists I discovered that my weight had been a protective shield, a joyful comfort zone, and even sometimes a super hero suit to protect me through life. My weight, like my hair, represented time. It stored energy. And I wanted to release myself from it.”
The singer explained that she started to think of her weight loss as not a pound “lost’ but a pound “released,” adding that she’s not one of the “big girl celebrities” that have had “dramatic changes” to their body for medical reasons.
“I wanted to change how I felt in my body,” she wrote. “I had been holding onto so much since my father passed away in 2009. I had been holding onto relationships that were deeply abusive and toxic since 2011. I had been carrying the weight of supporting my family since 2016. I wanted to let-it-the-f**k go.”
Lizzo clarified that her weight loss journey was “never” about being “thin,” saying she doesn’t think it’s possible for her to be “considered actually ‘thin’” according to conventional beauty standards.
“I will always have the stretch, and the skin of a woman who carries great weight,” she wrote. “And I’m proud of that. Even when the world doesn’t want me to be. The way I’ve been treated as a public figure since I was introduced to the world as a confident, body positive figure has been borderline emotional abuse. And it’s simply because of my weight.”
“Nevertheless, I made it work for me,” She continued. “I trolled the hell out of those obnoxious memes. I was self-aware that I was the butt of every fat joke on the Internet. And yet I continued to be who I am, because it’s the only thing I know how to be. And even in being myself, no one really believed it.”
Lizzo went on to write that some people thought she was being “performative” and that she had “internalized fatphobia,” while she became “sick and tired” of her “identity being overshadowed by [her] fatness.” She noted that she’s “made some questionable posts,” but has been “very conscious” of how she presents her “weight release” with the public.
While claiming that plus-sized models are “no longer getting booked for modeling gigs” and that “all of our big girls are not-so big anymore,” Lizzo insisted that she’s “still a proud big girl.”
“Objectively Big. Over 200 pounds,” she wrote. ‘And I love myself as much as I’ve loved myself no matter what the scale says. There may be some bad actors amongst us. Some people may have used the movement for financial gain or fame, and once it no longer served them they abandoned it. That’s OK, it was never about them anyway.”
“We have a lot of work to do, to undo the effects of the ozempic boom,” she added. “I have a lot of work to do to regain the trust of the movement that gave me wings. It is work I am willing and ready to do. What do we do? We continue to have conversations. We continue to hold each other accountable. We release ourselves from the illusion that there is only good and bad. We re-introduce nuance into our discussions. I want us to allow the body positive movement to expand and grow far away from the commercial slop its become. Because movements move..”
If you or someone you know is facing mental health struggles, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
